Throwing the Book at Kids

We will never know what vision 12-year-old Lionel Tate had of himself when he battered a 6-year-old girl to death two years ago in South Florida, pummeling her so thoroughly that her liver split in half. Was he pretending to be a pro wrestler, the kind who merrily body-slam their opponents without really hurting them? Or was he acutely aware of the damage he was inflicting? Likewise, we may not get the satisfaction of knowing if, across the country in California, 15-year-old Andy Williams truly understood what it meant to shoot and to kill when he opened fire on his classmates...

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